CRYSTALLINE PROPERTIES

OF SOLIDS
 CRYSTALLINE SOLID:
A crystal or crystalline solid is solid material whose
constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged
in a highly ordered periodic fashion. Crystalline solids are well-
ordered, have definite arrangements of molecules, atoms or
ions.
Amorphous and Polycrystalline Solid
• Not all solids are crystal; some have no
periodic structure at all – amorphous solids

• Some solids are composed of many small

regions of single-crystal material – named as
polycrystalline solids
 SOLID STRUCTURE:

Crystalline Polycrystalline
Amorphous
• Crystal structures come in three basic kinds
 SOLID STRUCTURE:

Crystalline
Amorphous
 CRYSTAL LATTICE
An array of points representing the arrangement of particles in
three dimensional spaces is called crystal lattice.
Also, the periodic arrangement of atoms in a crystal is called
lattice.
CRYSTAL LATTICE
A lattice is of 3 types:
 UNIT CELL
The smallest repeating unit in a crystal lattice is a unit cell.
Unit cell is the representative of the entire lattice and is
regularly repeated throughout the crystal.
The smallest unit cell that can be repeated to form the lattice
is called a primitive cell.
 Unit Cell

• We can get a lot of information from the

unit cell:
– Density of atoms
– Distance between nearest atoms
• Calculate forces between atoms
– Perform simple calculations
• Fraction of atoms filled in volume
• Density of atoms
 Invention of Lattice

The French scientist Auguste Bravais

demonstrated in 1850 that only 14 types
of unit cells are compatible with the
orderly arrangements of atoms found in
crystals. The lattices listed by Bravais
are divided into seven major crystal
symmetry systems.
 Simple Cubic Lattice

 In the simple cubic structure there

is only one lattice point at each
corner of the cube-shaped unit cell

e.g., Polonium
 This structure is the simple cubic
crystal structure. Only the metal
Polonium (Po) has this crystal
structure.
Body Centered Cubic Lattice

– Same as simple cubic

but with an additional
atom at the center of
the cell.

– Elements with BCC

lattice: Cr, Fe, K, Li,
Mo, Na, Ta, and W.
Face Centered Cubic (FCC) Lattice

– This is formed by adding

an additional atom in the
center of each face of
the simple cubic
configuration

– Elements with FCC

lattice: Al, Ca, Cu, Ni, Pb,
and Pt.
 Face Centered Cubic (FCC)
Lattice: Diamond Lattice
 Diamond is a
crystal structure with
a face centered
cubic Bravais lattice 
and two atoms in the
basis. Carbon, silicon
germanium, and α-tin
form this
crystal structure.

 Atoms in diamond lattice

have four nearest
neighbors (covalent
bonds).
Diamond Lattice
 Zincblende Lattice

• Similar to diamond lattice, except

that the lattice contains two different
type of atoms.
 Semiconductor Materials

• Semiconductors are a group of materials having

electrical conductivities intermediate between
metals and insulators. The conductivity of these
materials is significantly varies with temperature,
optical excitation and impurity content.

• Elemental Semiconductors
–Si, Ge
 Semiconductor Crystal Lattices
Now let’s look at the silicon crystal…
– Elemental semiconductors such as silicon and
germanium both exhibit the diamond structure.

• Here we display the silicon

unit cell.
• The small circles each
represent one silicon
atom.
• The solid lines
represent chemical
bonds.
 Crystal Growth

• Silicon never occurs alone in nature. It is a

man- made material.
• By heating SiCl4 in a hydrogen atmosphere
pure Si (polycrystalline) is found
• Two methods to turn polycrystalline silicon into
single crystalline silicon ingot.
–Czochralski (CZ).
–Float zone (FZ).
 Czochralski (CZ)
• Melt high purity silicon in a quartz
crucible.
• Dips one end of seed on the molten
liquid.
• Seed is slowly rotated and pulled.
• By controlling temperature difference,
the seed crystal slowly grows.
 Float-zone (FZ)
• Keep poly-Si rod and seed crystal vertically face to
face.
• Partially melt by inducted heating from high RF
power.
• Molten zone is rotated and gradually moved up.
• The entire polycrystalline rod is converted to
single crystal.
 Crystal Growth: Compound
Semiconductor

• Heterojunctions are typically produced

by a process known as MOLECULAR-
BEAM EPITAXY
 Commonly Used Silicon Wafer Sizes
• 5 inches (125mm):
–Used in low-end products and research.
• 8 inches (200mm):
–Commonly used silicon wafer in
production
• 12 inches (300mm):
–Prototype IC fabricated with this wafer size.
It is already in full production in few
semiconductor companies.